Tag Archives: food news

Brace yourselves, foodies. A new food truck, called Basil Thyme, focused on from-scratch Italian food made from local ingredients hit the streets this week. Brian Farrell and chef Malik Umar are bringing the District fresh pasta, homemade sausage, ricotta and sauces, each and every day. And they’re also making their own tiramisu and cannolis, if you happen to have a sweet tooth craving.

Farrell, one of the owners, worked in IT for 12 years when he decided to switch gears and pursue his passion for food with the truck. He cites his desire to work and connect with people along with his desire to make authentic Italian food as reasons for why he started the food truck. He also credits his never-ending appetite and his mother’s job as a home economics teacher for his early love for food.

“One of my favorite experiences is going to restaurant and you can tell the chef puts absolute love and care into the food that comes out of the kitchen,” said Farrell. “My thought in creating Basil Thyme was, I’d love to do that too–to make someone else have that great feeling of enjoyment from a meal.”

Farrell is assisted by chef Mailik Umar, who has worked in a variety of restaurants, according to Farrell.

You can find out their daily location either on twitter or on our handy strEATs-powered food truck map.

So… I joined Twitter. I know, right? I did it in the name of research for this story, and have liked it so much I think I’ll stay for good. (That may or may not be a hint for you to start following me, cause that makes me feel important and fuzzy and stuff.) So I come at this with an outsider-turned-quasi-insider perspective.

It seems recently all the DC food blogs I follow have gotten on Twitter, and are busy building a little community for themselves (ourselves?) complete with a list of the who-is-who. But us internet-types are always early arrivals, so the other half of my story is who else in the DC food scene, namely DC restaurants and more namely, which DC Chefs, are on Twitter. And then I’ll muse a bit about what twitter can do, and what others hope it can do, for the DC food scene and the betterment of our local food offerings. Ready? Let’s do it. Continue reading →